Florida Family Accused of Beating, Blinding Gay Man Appears in Court
The Florida family accused of beating a gay man so badly last year that it left him blinded appeared in a court this week.Husband and wife Yehven and Inna Makarenkjo, and their son Oleh, remained defiant outside of court on Wednesday after asking the judge overseeing their case to appoint public defenders to represent them.
The three family members are accused of breaking into the Pompano Beach home of the unidentified man, who claimed he was having a sexual relationship with Oleh, also known as Alex, last August and attacking him, leaving him blind and with other serious injuries.“The state knows that he’s lying.
The state knows that they don’t have any evidence to support it," Oleh said outside of court on Wednesday. “The only thing they apparently don’t know is that we have the evidence to prove our innocence.”The alleged victim, who was 31 at the time, told local Fox affiliate WSVN in May that he was targeted by the family because he had been dating the then-21-year-old Oleh for about nine months.“He was a little afraid of his family or very afraid of his family,” the man told the station. “He was telling me that his dad was treating him like he wasn’t even his child, that his mom was trying to force him to marry a girl, and I’m quoting what his mom said to him.
She wanted him to force him to marry a girl to ‘take all this [expletive] out of his head.'”The two took a weeks-long break.Related: Mother of Family Accused of Blinding Gay Man: We're the VictimsAfter two weeks, the four family members went to the man’s apartment and forced their way in, according to the victim. “Alex told me he hated me, and I told them, like, ‘Unfortunately, no matter what you do, it’s not going to change that your son is gay.
